"'Doesn't that help you at all?' asked Mary."
"'We're always paying each other out at school, or wishing we could,' objected Rollo. 'I don't seem to be able to help it.'"
"'Yes, I know; but when we get very tired of trying to be kind and to pay back a kind action instead of a nasty word, it does help to say to one's self, "His compassions fail not."'"
"'Well—' said Rollo, with a long-drawn breath, 'I'll try it. And here's dinner!'"
"He retraced his steps over the snow, and he looked up at the sky and saw the little robin singing on the branches in spite of the cold, and he repeated to himself tenderly, thinking of Mary's face: 'His compassions fail not; they are new every morning.'"
"For a moment his heart stood still. What about Mary's years of helplessness?"
"But he remembered that she had meant what she said, and there was nothing but truth from those gentle lips and eyes."
"When he got inside school he was almost late. In his hurry, he stumbled up against George Runton, and nearly knocked him over. He paused for one instant, then said, hastily, 'I'm sorry you lost your book, old fellow—it was awfully vexing.' And so passed on into school, with a wonderfully lightened heart."
* * * * * *
There was silence for a minute round the bright fire, for Auntie had set the children thinking.